Australian Open 2022: Wendy Turnbull is thrilled Ash Barty has broken her 42-year record as the last local woman to play in an Australian Open final

A third Queenslander, Sam Stosur, had already equalled or bettered several of Turnbull’s last-Australian-woman-to-reach-major-finals milestones - at Roland Garros in 2010 and at the 2011 US Open, where she so famously trumped Serena Williams.

That left Turnbull, the former world No.4, as the most recent homegrown female Australian Open semi-finalist until Barty matched that feat two years ago. Having now gone one better, those last few references to Turnbull have been scrubbed from the history books and the pub trivia question sheet.

At last.

“It’s funny because I played golf today and some of the tennis ladies came up when I was having lunch and they go, ‘Oooooh, it’s been 42 years since Wendy!’ And I said, ‘Please say 1980, because that sounds better than 42 years,’’’ Turnbull told CODE on Friday.

“I’m happy because nothing should last that long, and I’m glad Ash is breaking all my records, because she definitely deserves it. You watch her play and you listen to her, and she’s a fellow Queenslander, so what can I say?

“I’m so glad that she’s in the final. It actually bothered me that it kept going on and on because you want the Australian women to shine and it doesn’t do any good to have it 42 years since reaching the final and 44 years since Chris (O’Neil) won it. Even though the field wasn’t very strong for Chris, she still had to beat players who were ranked much higher than her. And she still had to win.’’

So does Barty, of course, as the world No.1 everyone wants to knock off the perch she has occupied for all but two weeks since just after her 2019 French Open triumph, through her 2020 Wimbledon success, to now, when a third leg of the career grand slam is just two sets and one defeat of Danielle Collins away.

The time difference between Melbourne and Boca Raton means that Turnbull —who has missed the past two of her annual summer trips back home to Queensland due to Covid, but plans to return in April — will be checking the scores when she wakes each morning, then settling in to watch on replay.

Saturday’s women’s final starts at 3.30am in Florida, but Turnbull may set the alarm for the occasion.

And might she also have some bubbly on hand, ready to celebrate?

“So you want me to not only get up in the middle of the night, you want me to have the champagne chilled?’’ she laughs from long-distance. “I actually have two bottles of Dom Perignon in the fridge.’’

Well then. Can she think of a better excuse to open one? “You know what? Probably not because they’ve been sitting there for a while. I can make a mimosa, because it will be breakfast by the time she’s finished.’’

Or, given how swiftly Barty has been winning, Turnbull might be back snoozing by 4.30am. “You’re absolutely right - even though I’m predicting Ash to win in three sets, you just don’t know how someone’s going to react in the final when they’re there for the first time.’’

That someone is Collins, the American who has never gone this far in a major before. Turnbull has watched her play, and noticed how fiercely she competes, but what’s harder to know is how she will handle the occasion. Then again, sometimes your first time is your best time.

“The thing is that she loves the pace, I think. Just like Madison Keys loves the pace, and when they’re not getting it from Ash they have to generate it themselves and that brings errors. I don’t think I’d like to play her. She’s too feisty! But I do think I’d have a lot of respect for her as a player and a competitor.’’

One thing the two Aussies have in common is a slice backhand although, in Turnbull’s case, it was the only one she could hit. Which didn’t stop the triple major finalist and winner of nine slams in doubles/mixed from joining a golden age of Australian women’s tennis. With Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Di (Fromholtz) Balestrat and Kerry (Melville) Reid, there were four in the year-end top 10 in 1978/9.

What also impresses Turnbull about the all-court Barty game are her varied serve, including the high-bouncing kicker, her movement and temperament, having been at court-side for her previous semi, and sensed her nerves and frustration during a 7-6 7-5 loss to eventual champion Sofia Kenin.

No need for any of that this year, so smooth has her passage been. Turnbull is also a relatively diminutive character, whose speed earned her the nickname “Rabbit”.

Barty, who likes to make her opponents feel uncomfortable with her variety and incredible court smarts, is more stealthy. Perhaps more like a fox.

Collins has been compared with a lion.

We’re getting to that bit.

*****

How much to read into the swinging volley version of a victory fist-pump from the generally understated Ash Barty in the semi-finals of a modest little tournament in Adelaide in 2020?

Perhaps a little, when it’s followed by a slightly cool handshake. Again, all things being relative. This was no grinning-with-nice-Maddie-Keys moment at the net. This was a tough contest against a vocal American hustler who took a medical time-out early in the third set of a match decided 7-5 in a tiebreak. Last year, en route to an upset second round victory, Collins accused the chair umpire of making a favourable call towards Barty because “she’s Australian”. One can only imagine what the Australian thought.

Having now reached her first major final at the age of 28, other places Collins is capable of getting is under an opponent’s skin or in their face. Combine that with a heavy, aggressive game, a fine backhand, and a feisty warrior spirit, and she’s not someone many opponents like to play.

With that purposeful stride and stony countenance, it’s the W she’s after, not the friends, although there seems to be no shortage. And the fact that she lacks the more subtle, natural gifts that Barty combines with a heavier serve and forehand than previously, means Collins must use all the tools at her disposal.

Her quarter-final opponent Alize Cornet made some interesting observations. Pre-match: “I see how she is on the court. She’s like a lion. Oh, my God, she impresses me a little bit because she’s like so intense, I’m intense, too, but I think she’s next-level intense.’’

Collins took it as a compliment. About her competitiveness, toughness and tenacity. After all, part of her tennis education came in the very non-country-club environs of the public parks in South Florida. The world No.30 then beat the Frenchwoman 7-5 6-4 to replicate her breakthrough semi-final effort from 2020.

Post-match, Cornet was prompted to revisit the animal kingdom: “She’s very powerful, even more than what I expected. Her ball is going really fast in the air and she takes the ball super early… But today she was pretty quiet. She didn’t scream that much. When I see her playing on TV, sometimes she’s yelling, ‘c’mon!’. She looks like a lion. Today I don’t think I gave her enough battle so she could express herself.’’

Barty describes the opponent she leads 3-1 head-to-head as an exceptional ball-striker who needs to be kept off-balance. “I think the way she‘s able to control the baseline and really take the game on, she’s one of the most fierce competitors out here. She loves to get in your face and loves to really take it on.’’

A graduate of the University of Virginia, where she spent another key period of her tennis development until 2016, Collins is happy just to see faces in the crowd again, feel the energy and hear the voices. Even if, on Saturday night, the vast majority will be shouting for Barty. “I think in college you get used to having an adverse crowd quite often. I always enjoyed it. I love playing with energy, whether it’s for me, against me, neutral. So I hope that it’s prepared me well, but we’ll find out.’’

*****

On a day such as this, it’s hard not to think of Cathy Freeman and the torch that ignited the Olympic cauldron in Sydney 2000. Almost a Barty lifetime later, this has been called her Freeman moment. No pressure, though.

Winning on the 100th anniversary of the first Australian women’s championship has a destiny-type feel to it. At Wimbledon, it was half-a-century since Evonne.

This one’s all about Ash.

Her 11 or 12-year-old self started to wonder after her first visit to Melbourne Park what might be possible. What she could achieve. Plenty and quickly was the first answer, which was exciting, but also slightly overwhelming for the shy homebody from Ipswich. It was too much. And we all know what happened next.

Her comeback in 2016 involved starting to work full-time with coach Craig Tyzzer, but there was no talk of the 2011 Wimbledon junior champion winning senior slams. Not then.

“She basically had done no physical training, per se, other than play cricket and a little bit of coaching. So physically she was miles off the mark,’’ Tyzzer said this week. “It took us 12 months before she was back to a semi-decent level. Again, still then she wasn’t anywhere near where she is now.

“I don’t think she thought she was a grand slam winner back then. I think she just thought she was good at tennis, if she really worked at it, things might work out, but she was going to give it a try. She’s worked extremely hard in lots of areas to get to where she is today.’’

The owner of two majors. On the verge of grand slam No.3.

By sticking to her usual routine. A self-described creature of habit who will practice (maybe a little more than usual on her off days, given the short matches so far and absence of doubles, says Tyzzer, but still less than an hour), read her book, drink her coffee, chill and switch off with her team, watch some of the Women’s Ashes. The former Big Bash batter has been middling them in the Melbourne Park hallways. Her strength and conditioning coach Mark Taylor, an Englishman, not so much.

Expectation and pressure seems to have affected her a little in the latter stages of the past two Opens, but Barty is determined to “absolutely embrace” the occasion. “You have to. It’s fun. It’s brilliant to be playing in the business end of your home slam. I’m not gonna lie about that. It’s amazing.

“I think being able to experience it multiple times has been incredible, but Saturday‘s going to be a new experience for me. So I go out there and embrace it, smile, try and do the best that I can and whatever happens happens. It’s been an incredible January, an incredible summer for us. Yeah, I’m really looking forward to having one last crack here to really go out there and enjoy it.’’

Tyzzer says there has been no talk of 44-year droughts. It’s just about preparing in the same calm, considered and streamlined fashion as always. “Don’t want to bring anything new in or make it more than what it actually is.’’

What it is, after all this time: an awfully big deal.

*****

O’Neil, the last Australian woman to actually win the thing, who lives and coaches quietly in Port Macquarie but has accepted Tennis Australia’s invitation to attend on Saturday night, is conspicuously absent from the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame.

Having won — aged, 22, unseeded, against Betsy Naglesen — on the Kooyong lawns in a very different Open era, when draws were smaller, fields generally weaker, technology and facilities poorer, former Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard, says induction is based more on career achievements than one tournament, for it was the only singles title O’Neil ever won.

Turnbull finished with 11, although no majors from those three finals, and logged eight consecutive finishes in the year-end top 10. Barty, at the peak of her career, is perfectly primed, having played four-and-a-half hours and 40 games less than Collins, and lost zero sets.

The Queenslanders have never met in person - not as adults, although Turnbull was told by a friend that a presentation she made to a gaggle of juniors around a dozen years ago at the Brisbane International included Barty, who was probably one of the few who wasn’t taller than her 164-centimetres.

Comparing achievements across different eras is always a fraught exercise, and asked to rate 1980 against 2022, Turnbull says you can only play on the terms you’re given. And, like O’Neil and Margaret Court during much of her dominant period, beat who you play.

“You still have to win all those matches and it’s a grand slam event. I mean, I like Chris O’Neil, but when Chris won it, there weren’t many top players playing it. When I got to the final in ‘80 I beat Martina Navratilova in the semis. So it wasn’t like I didn’t beat anybody.’’

Others included the likes of Sue Barker and Pam Shriver, before a finals loss to Hana Mandlikova. “I would say that’s pretty darn tough.’’

Barty acknowledges how much time has passed since an Australian-born woman played off for the singles title, and knows the level of support coming her way on Rod Laver Arena. “We’re so fortunate in Australia have a country with so much depth and have players before us and legends before us the have been able to experience that before and it has been a long time coming but I’m really excited to go out there and try and make my mark and do my thing and see how we go.’’

All that’s left intact and ongoing for Turnbull, then, is the fact that she’s the last Aussie to have made the final of the singles doubles and mixed at the French Open. That was 1979. That’s also a bit obscure, but Barty will surely never play all three, so that one appears safe. “I just thought of that: which record will she not break?,’’ Turnbull quips. “I don’t think I have any others.’’

Not any more. Over to you, Ash. The Dom Perignon is ready.

And, after 44 years, the sound of corks popping is long overdue.